PKN Orlen's new PX/PTA plant to run at 60-70% of capacity in 2011

11 February 2011 17:21  [Source: ICIS news]

LONDON (ICIS)--PKN Orlen's new paraxylene/purified terephthalic acid (PX/PTA) plant, in Wloclawek, Poland, is likely to run at 60-70% of capacity during 2011, the Polish oil, chemical and petrochemical group said on Friday.

The company, which hoped that the facility’s two-month technological start-up delay would extend no later than March, said the utilisation of full capacity could only be achieved in 2012.

European polyethylene terephthalate (PET) producers, which were currently suffering from a lack of its primary feedstock PTA, were anticipating that the facility would bring some relief from tight supply.

Orlen said contracts with buyers, both in and outside of Poland, had been signed for PTA sales that should begin in the second quarter.

The production installation in Wloclawek has a feedstock capacity of 400,000 tonnes/year for PX (the feedstock for PTA) and 600,000 tonnes/year for PTA.

More than €1bn ($1.35bn) had been spent on creating the complex which is the most modern in Europe, Orlen said.

($1 = €0.74)

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By: Will Conroy
+44 20 8652 3214

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